From trouble to total control
Aryna Sabalenka broke early and looked in charge of the opening set at Indian Wells. Mirra Andreeva was down 4-1. What followed was eleven games in a row for the Russian and a 6-4 6-0 win that sends her into the semi-finals of the WTA Finals.
Andreeva levelled the set, broke again to close it out, then ran away with the second. She jumped on Sabalenka’s errors, broke early for 3-0 and never offered the world No 2 a way back. A bagel against one of the most powerful players on tour, in a group decider, on her debut at the event.
The 19-year-old French Open champion has now won both of her Group 2 matches without dropping a set, and she clinched top spot in the group with a round still to play.
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Svitolina keeps the door open
Earlier in the day, Elina Svitolina had saved her own tournament. The Ukrainian lost the first set to Karolina Muchova and needed an eight-minute medical time-out, but she turned it around to win 3-6 6-2 6-2.
Svitolina, beaten 6-4 6-0 by Andreeva in her opener, admitted she had been angry with herself and tried to channel it into her hitting. She also said she was nursing several small injuries and planned an ice bath and as much recovery as she could fit into 48 hours.
That result knocked Muchova out of semi-final contention.
Friday decides the last spot
Group 2 now comes down to one match. Sabalenka and Svitolina meet on Friday, with the second semi-final place on the line. The US Open runner-up arrives having just lost eleven straight games. Svitolina arrives battered but with momentum.
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